Acting Vs. Voice Dubbing
By Neeraj Mehra
Voice Dubbing, Mimicry or doing voice overs brings out a talented artiste’s ability to play different
voice roles from background first voice, dubbing for cartoon films, muppet or puppet animation, mimicry,
advertisements containing variations of voices and the list goes on. The area of specialization is also
unending and a simple voice artiste can be a specialized voice artiste in any of the mentioned areas.
In today’s arena where more than one thousand feature films roll over in India every year, more than 150
satellite channels are beamed over and lot of Foreign Films are like of Indians, regional language dubbing
is welcomed by us. Even reputed and famous starts have lent their voices in many animated and cartoon films
here in India. Some of you must know that Cartoon Network had a low TRP when it was launched in India as a
first animated Channel. But since they have started their Hindi Channel their TRP has enhanced a lot. Same
is the case of other channels. Now Hindi dubbed animations and films are considered as original as they are
in their source language.
There is also a misconception that Voicing is easier than acting in front of camera. Yes, in terms of getting
ready, good clean face, costumes etc, but a big No in terms of quality and providing satisfied work. In some
terms voicing becomes more difficult than acting. You have to get in the character and you’ve got only one
tool - your voice to bring out the real person out of it. Your ability to give variations in your voice,
be it different human voices or many types of other sounds or expressions do provide a broader spectrum in
regard to your profession.
Another important aspect of being a voice artiste is knowledge of the language you are speaking in regard
to pronunciation, diction, clarity, grammar and the diction. A voice artiste should be capable of giving as
close to the original soundtrack of source film in providing a real, sensible voice with proper pauses, gestures
and behavior. Your ability to translate from the source language to the dubbed language is another asset, which
should not be forgot of. Sometimes a translator has to adapt a foreign script in to a target local language like,
you may have to dub an English film into bhojpuri to target that area of people, this needs to add many local
dialects and diction and the voice artiste should have proper knowledge of that.
You have the courage; you have the voice, do train yourself good, practice, practice and practice.
Read my other articles and enrich yourself and my endeavor to have more and more people in this trade
makes me happy. You are welcome to comment upon anything you like. I am also learning.
